The present application claims priority to Japanese Patent Application Number 2011-264182, filed Dec. 2, 2011, the entirety of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to screen display control systems and screen display control methods and is particularly suitable for use in a system which controls for displaying the same type of information on a plurality of displays (screens).
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, technologies have been provided which display the same information on a plurality of displays (screens). For example, a technology exists which includes a front display on a front seat side of the interior of a vehicle and a rear display on a rear seat side, wherein a video played by a DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) may be displayed by them in synchronization.
Recently, a system has been proposed which includes a plurality of displays having different screen sizes on a front seat side in the interior of some luxury cars, wherein different kinds of information are shown on the displays. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 11, a plurality of vehicle-mounted apparatuses 501 and 502 with controllers each having a display may be provided, and the vehicle-mounted apparatuses 501 and 502 acquire and display different pieces of information from a server 503 over the Internet. In this case, it is configured such that a handler displayed as an icon may be manipulated by a user to implement a desired control.
In the system illustrated in FIG. 11, the information pieces shown on the displays of the vehicle-mounted apparatuses 501 and 502 are not synchronized. Separate and independent information pieces are shown on the displays. On the other hand, there is a demand for showing the same kinds of information (which are not completely the same but are related to each other) in synchronization. For example, there is a need for showing text-based information of one content acquired over the internet on a large-screen display and, in synchronization with it, handler-based information thereof on a small-screen display.
However, these needs may have not been addressed in the past. That is, even when one vehicle-mounted apparatus is operated to change the text-based information shown on a large screen display, the handler-based information being shown on the small-screen display may not be changed in synchronization. For that reason, an operation may be necessary for changing the handler-based information to be shown in the other vehicle-mounted apparatus.
Notably, a technology has been provided which plays a plurality of contents such as videos, animations, and Web contents in synchronization on the basis of a scenario describing a synchronization play table (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-125214, for example). However, the technology recited in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-125214 relates to showing a plurality of contents on one display in synchronization and may not address the needs for showing the same type of information on a plurality of displays in synchronization.
Another technology exists which configures screen display data with an ID code indicative of a specific display form and text or image data to be pasted onto the display form (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-141548, for example). According to the technology recited in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-141548, a mobile terminal having received screen display data from a server extracts an ID code from the screen display data and invokes the display form identified with the ID code. A display screen is created by pasting text and/or image data according to the style defined by the display form. However, even Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-141548 does not disclose a system causing a plurality of displays to show the same type of information in synchronization.
The present invention was made in order solve this problem. It is an object of the present invention to allow showing the same type of information of one content acquired over the Internet on a plurality of displays.